Ezra Blount, a 9-year-old boy who was trampled at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival earlier this month, died Sunday from his injuries, his family told local media.
Houston’s ABC 13 said Blount died after spending days on life support following the tragic crowd surge at the rapper’s festival, which has now left 10 people dead and scores of others injured.
The boy’s family said last week Blount was at the Scott’s concert in Houston with his father, who lifted him onto his shoulders to stay above the crowd during the busy festival. His dad told local media they were “stoked” to go to the show.
The pair fell during the crowd crush and the younger Blount was severely injured. He was taken to the hospital after being separated from his father and placed in a medically induced coma with severe damage to his internal organs, his family said.
Blount’s dad, Treston Blount, said this week the family was in agony after the festival, saying he wasn’t “ready to lose my boy.”
“We still got a bunch of living to do,” Blount told ABC 13 in Houston. “That’s my boy.”
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said he was saddened to hear of Blount’s death. The mayor has vowed a full investigation into the circumstances of the event, and Scott has pledged to cooperate with any probes.
“Our city tonight prays for his mom, dad, grandparents, other family members and classmates at this time,” Turner wrote on Twitter. “They will need all of our support in the months and years to come. May God give them strength.”
Blount’s family is one of many to file lawsuits in recent days, naming Scott, Live Nation and other festival organizers as defendants. Legal experts predict damages could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Me and the family, we’re struggling with this,” the boy’s grandfather, Bernon Blount, told the Houston Chronicle last week. “We’re struggling with seeing the injuries to our grandchild and what he had to go through to receive those injuries. We’re hurt and disappointed that the city would allow an event to go on like this and for people to be deceased. We just want to know who’s responsible.”
Ezra Blount is the tenth person to die after the crowd crush. Eight people were killed during the tragedy and a ninth person, 22-year-old Bharti Shahani, died from her injuries on Wednesday. Those killed ranged in age from 9 to 27.
Investigators are still working to determine what caused the surge, but Scott’s behavior at past events stoking on crowds has come under scrutiny and renewed calls for better crowd control measures at large events.